Day 35: The Summer of His Face Shining Upon Us- Psalm 35

Day 35 – Join Johnny Enlow for a 67-day walk through Psalms.

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VENGEANCE?

Key Verse: “Plead my cause, O Lord, with those who strive with me; Fight against those who fight against me.” (v.1)

Key Theme: David is being wrongfully pursued by former friends.

Key Descriptives of God: Judge; Rescuer; Avenger

Psalm 35 is the first of 7 Psalms (not consecutive) where David is pleading for vengeance from God against his enemies. It is easy to read these chapters and say, “Wow, David really needs to upgrade to New Testament standards of ‘loving your enemies’ and ‘praying for those who despitefully use you’.” Perhaps. If we knew the specifics of what was going on in his life it would be easier. I definitely don’t think that the average person is being encouraged to give himself/herself over to “vengeance” thoughts or that for most of us these chapters are any kind of guide for dealing with people who disagree with us. It is my view that this chapter has to be covering the time David is running from King Saul— and it was not over yet but ongoing. David had slain Goliath and become the hero of the people. Initially embraced by Saul, he turned on David when he heard the women celebrating David’s return from the battlefield saying “Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands.” They were not trying to be insulting to Saul, as he was being recognized as a great warrior, but it was just so obvious David was at another level. It was yet another reminder that Saul, who was Israel’s giant (a head taller than the other men) had cowered before Goliath for forty days and that David had been the rescuer. So he tried to kill David.

PLEAD MY CAUSE

The entire long chapter (28 verses) is David pleading with God for rescue from this situation. David is most thorough in his descriptions of what is taking place. He again sounds helpless throughout this Psalm and it would be easy to forget that there is a reason the women would sing “David has killed his ten thousands”. His tone goes from being angry that they are wrongfully targeting him to emotionally hurt at the betrayal of former friends. His detailing of how he would like them to be judged borders on humorous at times. “Let them be like the chaff before the wind, and let the angel of the Lord chase them” (v.5) and “Let their way be dark and slippery, and let the angel of the Lord pursue them.” (v.6) He will explain, “For without cause they have hidden their net for me in a pit.” (v.7) David will go in and out of addressing THEM and HIM as those who wrongfully are pursuing him and trying to kill him. In verses 11-14 he will tell of those who are now chasing him how he fasted and prayed for them when they were sick and how he paced as a friend or brother in caring for them. The HIM he addresses must be Saul and in verse 8 David says, “Let destruction come upon him unexpectedly, and let his net that he has hidden catch himself”. ! Samuel 31, tells the story of Saul’s sudden death and ultimately he dies by his own sword seemingly fulfilling David’s request. His two big enemies Goliath and Saul both die by their own weapon of war. That is kind of standard with the enemies of God and I believe being played out in our times as well. “Media” is destroying itself. “The Swamp” is destroying itself.

DELIVERING THE POOR

“Lord who is like You, Delivering the poor from him who is too strong for him?” (v.10) This verse further seems to confirm the David and Saul scenario as he identifies himself as “the poor” and Saul as the “too strong” for him. It reveals to us that David knows the Lord enough to understand that this is a core characteristic of who He is. On and on, verse after verse, he will belabor this point “Lord how long will you look on? Rescue me from their destructions” (v.17), “Stir up Yourself and awake to my vindication” (v.23) etc.etc. Again David can sound dramatic— but only if you fail to consider he might have been on the run for months or even years from the king of his nation with all the best warriors also chasing him down. His plea to God has to come out of being aware that he, David, has already been anointed king instead of Saul, but we know from the story itself that David was not going to make that happen by personally killing him. If God went out of the way to anoint him, king, then God needed to go out of the way to install him as king. His absolute refusal to raise an insurrection from among the people is very telling because it is clear he has their affection. He has the personal might of a superman, he has the general populace behind him (though from the chapter you can see lying witnesses have slandered him) but yet his appeal is to God. He decidedly does NOT follow “God helps those who help themself” but lives a life of total dependence on God. David’s own great power and might he will use only at God’s discretion.

JUDGE ME?

“JUDGE ME, O Lord My God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me”. (KJV) This is a good time to explain how different the word JUDGE and JUDGMENTS were for those in Bible times compared to how we westerners apply it. We generally despise the word JUDGE and might quickly correct David and say “David you don’t want to be judged, you want mercy.” But if you would do a concordance research of the Bible you would see a constant desire of the writers for God to judge and for His judgments to be made manifest. They would make it a positive thing over and over— and that reality we often missed. For instance, Is. 26:9 “When Your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness”, has caused many to believe that God has to send earthquakes, hurricanes, famines, and floods to get people to stop sinning. It is a wrong understanding of the concept of judgment from a Biblical Hebraic concept.

PLAINTIFF NOT DEFENDANT

In Western Christianity, we generally think as a DEFENDANT when hearing the words “God’s judgments”. In the Hebraic mindset, they always processed as PLAINTIFFS. It was about getting a hearing. Most cultures it was hard to ever get the hearing (still is in many). One had to pay or bribe someone just to get “before the judge”. It was considered an almost sure thing to get mercy, or vindication if one could just get the hearing. The Biblical passion for judgment and justice is from a plaintiff’s perspective. Is. 26:9 is to be understood as, “When Your vindications are in the earth, the inhabitants…will learn righteousness” (or “justice” as the word is interchangeable). When understood this way justice, judgment, and judgments become all together desirable. JUSTICE being a foundation of His throne is not primarily about a God of vengeance AGAINST defendants/abusers, it is about a God of vindication FOR plaintiffs/the abused. That is His prime motivator and passion. As David saw, the Lord MY Shepherd is driven by His love for the little lamb, not by His hatred of the lion. This nuanced differentiation is important to understand, because without it, His image on earth is distorted. He is not the stern-faced Divine Judge scanning the horizon for wrongdoers to zap. Rather He is the kind-faced Divine Judge scanning the horizon for a “baaaa” from one of His lambs. A lion may get zapped, but His eyes are on His lambs. As 2 Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf” of His lambs. Today, as we again allow His shining face to be upon us, let us see Him as our Judge—  but through this upgraded lens. He is the Judge who is FOR us.

 

 

Written by: Johnny Enlow

Featured Image by chris ganser on Unsplash


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The 67 Day Countdown Series is brought to you by Johnny and Elizabeth Enlow, founders of Restore7 ministry, as well as international speakers and best-selling authors. Among Johnny’s books are The Seven Mountain Prophecy, The Seven Mountain Mantle, Rainbow God, The Seven Mountain Renaissance, Becoming A Superhero, and RISE. Elizabeth serves as CEO and penned Rainbow God: The Seven Colors of Love and God in Every Season.

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About the Author

Kingdom Winds Contributors - Johnny and Elizabeth Enlow are social reformers at heart, as well as international speakers and authors of The Seven Mountain Prophecy, The Seven Mountain Mantle, and Rainbow God. As ones focused on the reformation of the 7 primary areas of culture, they are spiritual mentors to many in Media, Arts and Entertainment, Government, Family, Religion, Economy, and Education. Their passion is to awaken our generation to the reality of the God of all of life, Who not only cares for our souls but also has practical solutions to offer through His sons and daughters for every problem that exists in society.